Traditional betting deals with wagering on which contestant will win the game. The punter makes his bet at the bookmaker's odds and if he wins he receives his original stake plus whatever the odds were. This is better known as "back betting" since the bettor is "backing" one team over another.

Lay betting, then again, is a relatively new concept by which the punter bets against a team winning the match. This is generally done through betting exchanges and the person making the lay bet essentially becomes their own bookmaker, setting their own odds.

Practically all lay bets are even money bets. This implies if punter wins he stands to win two times as much as his original wager, or his original wager times two. On the flip side, if he loses the bet, he must pay the backer the original wager plus the odds. It means that more often than not his potential winnings are less than his potential liability.

For example, if Person A wants lay bet Ł10 against XYZ team, he can make the offer on a betting exchange. Person B is sure that XYZ will win, so he matches the bet; matching Person A's Ł10 wager. As included in the lay bet, Person A set XYZ's odds of winning the game at 5. So Person A, the one making the lay bet, must put up not only his Ł10 wager, but also his potential liability (the main difference between his original bet as well as the odds). In this instance the surety is another Ł40 (odds of 5 x Ł10 = Ł50 - the original bet of Ł10 = Ł40). If XYZ loses, Person A gets his original Ł10 back, his surety of Ł40, plus Person B's Ł10. If XYZ wins although, then Person B not only gets his original Ł10 back, but he also wins the odds, or the surety put up by Person A, the Ł40.

The main question many individuals ask is: if the potential winnings often be less than the potential losses, why would anyone do this? The primary reason is because it allows the lay bettor to set his own odds. Of-course the odds set by the lay bettor special info have to be reasonable so that you can attract a back bettor to match the bet. Further, since all the exchanges require a lay bettor to deposit both his own wager plus the entire amount of the potential liability before the bet will be offered there isn't any possibility of betting beyond his immediate means.

The capability to set the odds is by far the primary draw of lay betting, so if a person has a system of calculating the odds efficiently, that individual can essentially take advantage of the exact same system that basic bookmakers do. Further, since soccer teams always have hardcore fans that always bet for their very own team, as long as lay bettor calculates his odds properly and reasonably, there is a great chance of finding a back bettor that is betting more with his heart than with his head. If punter knows the best way to use lay betting, it may be an incredibly profitable undertaking.